Sentera to automate the Palpa can recycling

The purpose of the solution is to improve the administration of can recycling, to replace the current Palpa can recycling and administration system and to automate processes.

17/11/05 Sentera will deliver Suomen Palautuspakkaus Ltd the enterprise resource planning system Sentera Enterprise and the integration solution Sentera iSuite to improve the efficiency of Palpa's can recycling administration. The solution will be delivered through application service provisioning, which ensures that information from all circa 2,500 recycling vending machines can be quickly collected into the same system and that the collected information will be widely available. Delivering the solution as a service requires continuous maintenance of the system and long-term development with Palpa and its partners. The system will be taken into production use during spring 2006.

The purpose of the solution is to improve the administration of can recycling, to replace the current Palpa can recycling and administration system and to automate processes. The solution supports the development goals for the next few years and creates a basis for an expanding recycling and administration system that will include all beverage packaging.

Palpa or Suomen Palautuspakkaus Ltd administrates the return of reimbursable beverage cans in Finland. Palpa also works to develop a beverage packaging recycling system and decrease any harmful environmental effects. Palpa's shareholders are the commercial groups Alko Inc., Inex Partners Oy, Ruokakesko Oy and Tuko Logistics Oy as well as the breweries Hartwall Ltd, Olvi Plc and Oy Sinebrychoff Ab.

The recycling system of deposit cans started in 1996. There are circa 6,100 return points in total, of which circa 2,400 have a reverse vending machine. Ninety percent of the cans are returned to the system through the reverse vending machines. The deposit for a can is 0.15 euro. In a little more than 9 years the system has collected over 850 million cans, of which 100 million were non-deposit cans. Over 14,000 tons of aluminium has been recycled.

The Ekopullo Association administers the use and recycling of refillable beverage packaging. There are 315 million refillable glass and plastic bottles in the bottle recycling system in Finland. Glass bottles withdrawn from the system are used as raw material for new bottles, and plastic bottles for textiles. Companies using refillable bottles include the beverage companies Finn Spring Ltd, Fisutta Oy, Hartwall Ltd, Kolibri Star Oy, Lammin Sahti Oy, Oy Mallaskoski Ab, Nokian Panimo Oy, Olvi Plc, Oxa Oy, Pramia Oy, Oy Sinebrychoff Ab, VIP-Juicemaker Oy and Ålands Bryggeri Ab.

Sentera Plc, an information system provider operating in Finland and neighbouring areas, bases its operations on long-term strategic partnership with customers, business area know-how, as well as productised solutions and services. Its turnover in 2004 amounted to EUR 22.5 million. www.sentera.fi

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